Ben Grossbaum was born on May 8, 1894 in London and moved to New York with his family when he was one year old. Young Ben was motivated by the death of his father and the humiliation of poverty. Wanting a better life, he became a model student, graduating as the class salutatorian from Columbia University at the age of 20.Upon graduation, Ben received an invitation for employment as an instructor in English, Mathematics, and Philosophy, but instead he chose a job on Wall Street. Ben was a student of investing, spending great time studying and analyzing the financial state of companies. He was critical of the corporations for obfuscated and irregular financial reporting making it difficult for investors to discern the true state of the business's finances. Many of convictions such as returning a portion of the company's earnings to shareholders through dividend payments and not relying on future growth to justify a high price are still widely held beliefs by many today.

In 1928, Ben accepted a position teaching at the Columbia Business School and wrote several books. Along the way he spawned several well-known disciples such as Jean-Marie Eveillard, William J. Ruane, Irving Kahn, Walter J. Schloss, and Charles Brandes.

You make think that you have never heard of Ben Grossbaum, but I suspect you have. During World War II German-sounding names were regarded with suspicion, so Ben's father changed the family name from Grossbaum to Graham. Today we know Ben Grossbaum as Benjamin Graham, the father of Value Investing.

There was one other student that I failed to mention above, Warren Buffet. Behind only his father, Buffet describes Graham as the second most influential person in his life. Buffett, credits Graham as grounding him with a sound intellectual investment framework. "The best book on investing ever written," is how Buffet describes Graham's book The Intelligent Investor. According to Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham said that he wished every day to do something foolish, something creative, and something generous. Buffett said that Graham excelled most at the last.

In my stock analyses, one of the fair-value metrics I look at is the Graham Number, obviously developed by Benjamin Graham. Next week we'll take a look at how the Graham Number is calculated.

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uring World War II German-sounding names were regarded with suspicion, so Ben's father changed the family name from Grossbaum to Graham.======================================================allenSocial Bookmarking Service

Anonymous
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March 16, 2009 at 10:43 PM

I have researched the Graham Number and there are many complex explanations on how to calculate the price value threshhold. The simplest is: ____________________ GN$= / 22.5 X EPS X BVPS

For the ultra conservative investor, multiply the BVPS by 0.8 before taking the Square Root.Almost all calculators have the Square Root key.

Please remember the PEG, P/S, P/B, P/CF, and Free Cash Flow when evaluating a stock. The Balance Sheet should have Assets GREATER thanLiabilities, and the Current Ratio is a quick glance, but not a substitute for scrutiny of the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow, and the important Debt/Equity ratio. Good hunting!I am a VALUE+ DIVIDEND fellow investor, Signed $DAN, MBA, BA Math